It was apparent after the first few weeks of the season--the road to the girls volleyball championship in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League would go through Pioneer.

Del Mar knew it heading into its match with the Mustangs last week, so the Dons threw up a roadblock.

The Dons stopped Pioneer's win streak at five matches in league play with an impressive 25-20, 25-14, 25-20 win over the Mustangs on the Del Mar floor.

The win helped the Dons move into a first-place tie with the Mustangs, each team now sporting a 5-1 league record. Del Mar is 7-9 overall this year while Pioneer sits at 14-4.

The Mustangs finished in a third-place tie with San Jose in the division standings last year with Del Mar one notch back in the loss column in fifth place. Last year's top two finishers--Lincoln and Independence--have each moved up to the Santa Teresa Division.

Junior Sasha Lobovskaya had five kills and junior Anna Craig added four in Pioneer's loss to the Dons.

The Mustangs had run their league record to 5-0 with a 13-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-20 win over Gunderson earlier in the week.

Lobovskaya had a big night with 19 kills and she also led the team with five service aces and added 14 digs.

Senior Keri Richardson chipped in with eight kills, nine digs and two aces and juniors Janna Rezzonico and Victoria Jones shared the team lead with 18 digs apiece. Senior Natalie Kanga was tops with 38 assists.

Pioneer was to face Silver Creek earlier this week and will visit Overfelt on Oct. 18, 6 p.m., before heading to San Jose High on Oct. 22 for a 5 p.m. match.

In other local action, Leland slipped to 4-2 in the Mount Hamilton Division and to 11-3 for the season with a split last week. The Chargers lost 25-23, 25-20, 12-25, 25-23 to Leigh to open the week before outlasting Sobrato 19-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-23, 15-9 in five games.

Senior Sydney Thompson slammed a team-high 19 kills to lead the Chargers to the win over the Bulldogs. Thompson also had three service aces and nine digs in the win.

Junior Shelby Schrager-Sours topped the team in assists with 45 and aces with five, in addition to blasting four kills and adding three digs, and junior Allison Jeong had a team-high 10 digs to go with an ace.

Thompson was the kill leader in the loss to Leigh, knocking down 15, and Fletcher supported with 11. Jeong, Thompson and Worth each had 13 digs and Sours had 42 assists.

Leland was to face Live Oak and Santa Teresa this week and will return to the floor on Oct. 22 to visit Branham and on Oct. 24 to host Evergreen Valley in a couple of 6 p.m. matches.

Leland runners win

Sophomore Adam Schulze ran 15:28 to place second overall in a Mt. Hamilton Division race, leading the Leland cross country team to wins over Santa Teresa 242-32 and Silver Creek 20-38.

Rory Buckman was fifth in 16:06 with Joey Johnson seventh in 16:20 and Sean McCarthy eighth in 16:26 for the Chargers.

The Chargers are now 4-0 in the dual meet season and share first place with Willow Glen.

The Leland girls ran past the Saints 26-29 and the Raiders 18-38 behind a solid two-three finish by Riley Mason and Allison Politoski. Mason, a sophomore, was second in 18:24 with Politoski, a junior, third in 18:57.

Mason also had a strong showing over the weekend when she ran fifth in the large school division at the Artichoke Invitational in Half Moon Bay. Mason ran 15:09 to get into the top five in the girls race with teammates Narasimhan (17th in 15:43) and Politoski (20th in 15:48) close behind. Barnett was 26th in 15:59 with Rachel Womer 46th in 16:55 as Leland finished second to Monta Vista in the team standings.

Mustangs net wins

Sophomore Ave Enjavi won twice at No. 1 singles to pace the Pioneer girls tennis team to back-to-back wins over Gunderson and Oak Grove last week.

Enjavi won 6-4, 6-3 in the No. 1 spot in a 6-1 win over the Grizzlies. Junior Juliana Ng and senior Rojan Zarei teamed for a tight 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 1 doubles.

Enjavi was a 6-3, 6-2 winner in the No. 1 spot as the Mustangs swept the Eagles 7-0 two days later. Zarei and Ng cruised to a 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles.

The Mustangs, 8-1 in the division, were coming off of their only league loss this season, a 5-2 setback at the hands of Live Oak.